Back in 2022, EA announced a major shakeup in the Battlefield franchise by naming Respawn founder Vince Zampella to oversee the franchise. This was followed by a new DICE studio GM in Rebecka Coutaz, and the hiring of Marcus Lehto, the co-creator of the Halo franchise to spearhead the new Battlefield game’s campaign with newly-formed studio, Ridgeline Games.
While EA has yet to formally announce the new Battlefield game, it seems major changes are already underway, as Marcus Lehto has seemingly vacated his post not only as the Battlefield Game Director, but also his employment at EA. This was spotted by YouTuber DANNYonPC who screengrabbed Lehto’s before and after bio, which has since been scrubbed of anything related to Battlefield, Ridgeline and EA.
Seems like @game_fabricator has left EA, removing all references of battlefield from his bio, problems are starting already? pic.twitter.com/kqzsWCnTl6
— DANNYonPC (@DANNYonPC) February 24, 2024
Adding fuel to the fire, Ridgeline Games co-founder and Art Director Chris Matthews has also left his post this January 2024 to join the folks over at 343 Industries.
Cofounder of @ridgelinegames and art director Chris Matthews (@plastyk78) left in Januari 2024~ to go to 343 industries
The plot thickens https://t.co/TB0s8UJ5jr pic.twitter.com/uaA1SjlAq8
— DANNYonPC (@DANNYonPC) February 24, 2024
While EA, Lehto or Matthews haven’t announced anything about the departures, we’ll be sad to see Lehto leave the project, as he was very vocal in involving the community. On multiple occasions, Lehto has gone on Twitter to ask fans about various gameplay-related items about the Battlefield franchise such as destruction, map layouts, and more.
We’ve reached out to EA to ask about Lehto’s departure and will update the article if we hear anything back.
Our Take on Lehto and Matthews’ Departure from EA and What This Means for the Next Battlefield:
While Lehto’s departure from EA isn’t exactly 100% confirmed just yet, it does seem that way. We know the next Battlefield game hasn’t formally been announced yet, but we were excited to see Lehto be part of it. Not only that, but for someone to be quite vocal about the franchise’s missteps and wanting to correct it, that bodes well for the next entry.
Still, this doesn’t mean the Battlefield game in development at EA will be bad because of Lehto and Matthews’ departures, but it does raise a few questions.
We’ve reached out to EA about the situation and will update the article if we hear anything back.
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